{"id":48858,"date":"2023-07-07T14:35:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T13:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=48858"},"modified":"2023-07-10T11:14:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T10:14:57","slug":"imo-mepc-climate-change-shipping-levy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2023\/07\/07\/imo-mepc-climate-change-shipping-levy\/","title":{"rendered":"Shipping catches up – Climate Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sixteen years after New Zealand set the world’s first net zero target, the global shipping industry just about caught up today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the chair of this week’s International Maritime Organisation talks asked negotiators to rise in applause, they signed off<\/a> on targets to cut emissions 20% by 2030, 70% by 2040 and 100% “by or around, ie close to 2050”.<\/p>\n

For an industry with the same volume of emissions as Germany, it’s much better than the status quo. Before today there were no 2030 and 2040 targets and a goal to just halve emissions by 2050.<\/p>\n

But is it good enough? No one could argue it’s compatible with 1.5C but negotiators from the US and the Marshall Islands claimed it kept that temperature limit “within reach”. For Stretch Armstrong maybe.<\/p>\n

And what about that much-hyped tax on shipping emissions? World leaders discussed it in Paris two weeks ago, Latin American nations railed<\/a> against it on Monday but it barely got a mention today.<\/p>\n

Governments quietly agreed to study it with a view to implementing it by 2027. But what level it will be set at and what it will be spent on are the next issues to be fought over.<\/p>\n

Convincing shipping negotiators to spend it on anything other than cleaning up the sector and compensating for the measure’s economic impacts will be a tough sell.<\/p>\n

So any wealthy nation hoping it will absolve them of the need to pay into a loss and damage fund are likely to be disappointed.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s news:<\/strong><\/p>\n